One Thousand Gurus Podcast

#17: John Tieng - IRL Fall Guy, Learning to Fight, and Sharing Knowledge to Grow

• J.R. Yonocruz • Season 2 • Episode 7

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What if you could transform a passion for dance into a thriving career in stunt work and filmmaking? Tune in as we chat with the dynamic John Tieng. John shares how his diverse skill set, from boxing to taekwondo to weapon training, enhances his stunt performances and opens doors in the industry. He explains the seamless connection between dance and fight choreography and the critical importance of safety in stunt work.

John reflects on themes of adaptability, community building, and self-improvement. He discusses the supportive network that has been instrumental in overcoming challenges, emphasizing the need for a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Guest bio:
John Tieng is a film maker, stunt performer, action designer, dancer, and movement artist. At the age of 29, he made his first feature film debut during Christmas with the movie The Mean One. He was also featured in the TV mini series Bloodline of the Grid (2022). As of this recording, he has 17+ productions under his belt. John has also taught actors, dancers, and movers how to functionally fight and do action for a film, and teaches weekly at Swordplay LA. Before evolving into a stunt performer, he danced for 12 years. John also studies boxing, taekwondo, and weaponry. 

Socials:
IG: @johntieng
YouTube: John Tieng
Website: www.johntieng.com
IMDB: John Paul Tieng

Links/resources:

One Thousand Gurus Podcast:
Everyone has a compelling story to tell with insights we can all be inspired by. J.R. Yonocruz is a self-improvement blogger, relationship coach, and serial hobbyist with a passion for learning. He interviews unique guests from various fields to distill the strategies, habits, and mindsets we can use in our own lives. Each “guru” has a chance to give the audience a peek into a new world.

www.onethousandgurus.com
Instagram: @OneThousandGurus
TikTok: @onethousandgurus
YouTube: One Thousand Gurus Podcast
Email: onethousandgurus@gmail.com

J.R.:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of 1000 Gurus.

J.R.:

Today's guest is John Tieng. John is a filmmaker, stunt performer, action designer, dancer and movement artist At the age of 29,. He made his first feature film debut during Christmas with the movie the Mean One. He was also featured in the TV miniseries Bloodline of the Grid. As of this recording, he has 17 plus productions under his belt. John has also taught actors, dancers and movers how to functionally fight and do action for a film and teaches weekly at Swordplay LA. Before evolving into a stunt performer, he danced for 12 years. John also studies boxing, taekwondo and weaponry.

J.R.:

In this episode, John and I go over his background in dance and eventually the transition into film school and then doing stunts and fight choreography. We fanboy a bit over our childhood martial arts heroes like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and then we take an inside look of what it's like being a stuntman like the IRL Ryan Gosling in the movie the Fall Guy. And then we end on the importance of helping each other out within our communities and sharing knowledge that lifts everyone up. It was a very fun episode to record and hopefully you guys will enjoy it too. So, without further ado, hope you enjoy this episode with John Tieng.

J.R.:

Hello everyone and welcome back to 1000 Gurus. Today's guest is John Tieng. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here, man, I really appreciate it. So let me just go into how I know you. So we met several years back back at Seaside Sessions, the freestyle dance sessions in Newport Beach, through our mutuals, Annie and Christy, and I think for me personally, I think your freestyles were always super crazy to me because I guess for the audience I would describe it as like very controlled, clean pictures, isolations and a lot of musicality. And then, since then, I've been following your career journey on social media, which is really cool you learning different martial arts and then getting into stunt work and some tricking and you were promoting some of the different like features that you were in. And then, like most guests on the show, like I really admire and respect that like you are putting yourself out there to do and pursue what you're passionate about and I feel like the audience would learn a lot from you. So I really appreciate you being here. Yeah, thank you for having me.

John:

It's nice to have a fellow Filipino. Yes, you know, to just grab people that are interesting. I wouldn't say I'm crazy interesting, but I think I have an interesting story.

J.R.:

Yeah, definitely. We'll leave that up to the audience to decide. I think you're really interesting, so I want to start off with a few videos of yours. So the first one is your 2024 stunt reel. So let's get into that real quick frame yes, nice, let's just show a few seconds of this. But he does some crazy stuff here. You know who doesn't like being attacked by several people at once exactly plus. This is all real.

J.R.:

So this is all real. Yeah, you know who doesn't like being attacked by several people at once Right, exactly, Plus this is all real, so this is all real, yeah. It all hurts. That's what they say about, you know, like wrestling. They're like wrestling is scripted, but it's real, it's not fake, yeah, 100% real, yeah, glass on the face, legit, thank you.

J.R.:

So that was crazy. Like I said, mad respect for you still doing all that stuff, thank you. So I mentioned, like choreography and freestyle. So you were big into choreography and freestyle, at least when I met you, or like before then. We have a couple of videos for that too, okay, so this next one is this one's just fun this one's.

John:

I just wanted to show it the highlight of my life in my dance career.

J.R.:

See, he's a dancer, guys this is the highlight.

John:

I think we just need to show this one. Yeah, that's it, that's, that's it, that's it, that's fun. I love that.

J.R.:

It's funny because there are some choreographies that I'm in where I'm just like furniture. Where I'm like lifting someone up or just sitting there and I'm like I've been training all these years just to do this yeah, yeah.

John:

I think, it was funny because that performance I had different variations of that moment. I'm like I think on that day, right before I stepped out, I was like I'm just going to walk out and stand there.

J.R.:

And I just want to do nothing Like whatever, I'm going to walk off.

John:

What were the variations? There was one where I took a selfie because the lyrics is your boyfriend is such a douchebag. Yeah, yeah. So how do I make myself look like that? I'm like one was like just on my phone, one was like just on my phone, one was like just taking a selfie, and I was like different things. I was like I'm just going to walk out, do nothing.

J.R.:

Yeah.

John:

Yeah, and then that's it.

J.R.:

I think it worked.

John:

Yeah, it's actually just the little shrug and the little look and then just in that than anything else.

J.R.:

That's how it is, that's, yeah, that's how it is all right. Third video this is your actual choreography, or more more sophisticated. Like I said, what I like about your choreography is your musicality is really good, but the movements also make a lot of sense. Yeah, as a you know, as a choreographer myself, you can do moves, but I don't know. I think I can appreciate it when it's like that move makes sense for that musicality.

John:

Yeah, I think the way I was choreographing at the time was like very storytelling yeah.

J.R.:

That makes sense Nice. Okay. I think we can move on to the last one now. So the last one's your freestyle, so we'll show a little bit of this, but this is the first.

John:

This is the first time I did Seaside Session. Oh really, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, gotcha, it's the first time I ever freestyle. Okay, man, so this was my first night with you guys and I was like okay, and I had no idea what this song was.

J.R.:

Oh yeah, no idea. That's what I loved about the freestyle sessions. It's like, all right, we're going to play a song, just go for it, because that's what freestyle is. That's what I loved about the freestyle sessions is like all right, we're gonna play a song, just go for it, because that's what freestyle is. That's what it was. Yeah, let's go making us look bad man making all of us look bad good times all right, all right, thanks, solomon nice.

J.R.:

so that is the john ting that I know, but yeah, so you've been doing all this other cool stuff, so we'll get into it. So first question is normal is what is your origin story Like? Where'd you grow up, what were your main influences and what were your aspirations like as a kid growing up to now?

John:

don't think a lot of people know with you and you, I'm actually born in philippines, but I was raised in la pretty much my entire life, because I'm actually adopted from the philippines. Oh okay, yeah, there's a big story there.

John:

I didn't know that you know we can get into later on, but yeah, so I grew up in la, in alhambra specifically, and then I started dancing. My movement life started when I was like in third grade, started when I was watching and listening to in sync backstreet boys, bernie spears, christina aguilera, all our 90s hit groups, you know, learning choreography just through their music videos or their performances. So my choreography mind started going. So learning through a camera, learning, learning by watching, and then, getting into high school, I joined my all-male dance team, then Did that for all my high school life and then after that I got into college and joined Barcada Modern and a bunch of teams after that and then, yeah, I did a good maybe five, six years of collegiate competitive dancing and that's kind of how we kind of know each other.

J.R.:

Yeah, five, six years of collegiate competitive dancing and that's kind of how we kind of know each other. Yeah, so you were dancing since you were little and inspired by those sort of like 90s hit groups and stuff like that, was it like okay, as a Filipino, you know, stereotypically we dance out of the room we sing all this other stuff, yeah.

J.R.:

So then how did that come into? Was it like you just naturally thought that? Or was it like people around you or influences that are like, yeah, you should try dancing? What was that Inherence? Is it nurture nature?

John:

I think it just growing up. I loved music and seeing people dance to music was just like. It just felt good. It felt like it looked very freeing, very therapeutic. I think as a kid that just looks fun. I just want to do it. They look like they're having fun. I, yeah, you know, I just want to do it yeah, they look like they're having fun. I want to do what they're doing and then, as inspiration growing up, my cousin, genevieve, was a also a dancer, so I think she had a lot of inspiration for me.

J.R.:

I see, I see so then. But did you? Did you go to school, somewhere like college or anything?

John:

so I did a lot of community college at the time, right right after high school. Again, I didn't really know what I wanted to do because my my I wasn't big on school, so I was more into the arts gotcha I just want to do what like artistic stuff yeah, which so I I ended up going to film school and I did my three years, got my bachelor's and that's how I have my whole film production side yeah, I was gonna ask about that.

J.R.:

So then, did you know? So it seems like you're saying you enjoyed the arts, you enjoyed dancing and music and all that stuff, and then you eventually went to film school. Did you inherently know that that's the path you wanted to do? Or, as you kind of dug deeper and you're like oh, this is a lot of fun. And then you're like, okay, let's do film school.

John:

Yeah, I think didn't happen right away. Um, as I did college, kind of like, just kind of just roaming around a little bit, I was thinking about I was like I love films and I've been watching films my entire life and I was like I think I just want to do this and because during dance we were filming dances yeah, excuse me, we were filming dances and that kind of bled into what became my love for film. You know, I was like I had, I knew what to do with the camera. I was like I want to go shot movies.

John:

I mean, growing up, I think acting was also another thing that I enjoyed, because as kids we always played pretend. So playing pretend was a big talent of a kid. Now I just get to do it as an adult. So I was like okay, film, I know how to use a camera, there's acting. Why don't I just get to do it as an adult? So I was like okay, film, I know how to use a camera, there's acting. Why don't you get into film, you know? So that's kind of like the start of it.

J.R.:

So then, after film school, what was like the? I don't know if you had like a career trajectory or like, uh, okay, I want to eventually get to this or do that. But could you walk us through maybe like your thought process, as you are? You you know, going to school, community college and then film school. What were your aspirations at that point?

John:

So that kind of also bleeds into my stunt career. Well, for my film career I wanted to be an editor, because I started as an editor before film school and then I was like, ok, I want to go to film school to learn more about editing. When I got into film school I was like, ok, well, I learned a lot about the production side how to use a camera, how to use lights, how to use the sound system and that kind of led me into directing. And at the time of all my film production schooling, that's when I got into fighting as well, so my fight career started at the same time.

John:

So it was funny because during while I was in school at the osa, class would start at nine. I would already be in the gym at seven training. So my day started very early every day and then went to school. So that's kind of how my career in film and stunts kind of started. Yeah, I see, I see. But going back to your question, goals wise, I wanted to be an editor, I wanted to edit movies, so that was like my goal goal.

J.R.:

So it was like your goal at that time was to be behind the computer, you know editing, but then you found yourself like being hands-on, you're filming, directing, and then you got into like stunt work. So how did that? Well, I guess that kind of answers the question right Like. Well, I guess that kind of answers the question right Like you just started doing stuff.

J.R.:

Yeah, how did you like get into the position where now you're like in front of the camera, like being shot? Was it just that process of being in film school that you naturally found yourself in front of the camera?

John:

I think being behind the camera was nice. But then as a dancer growing up, we're like we love being in front of the camera, we love performing. So that kind of bled into why I wanted to be a stunt performer. And when I started fighting I started meeting a lot of stunt people who taught me everything I know now. So that led me to being in front of the camera and my love for film even more, because that, what I learned in school, helped me be a better performer, you know. So. I understand camera, I understand lighting, I understand sounds, I understand where things are and how everything works on set. So now when I perform people don't really need to give me too many notes because I understand what's happening.

J.R.:

Right, like the technical stuff behind the entire production, not just kind of like your area of your acting or performing whatever. But it's okay. You need to consider your blocking the lights, the sound, the camera and everything it makes a lot of sense.

J.R.:

So then my next question is how do you connect the dots between you know, this passion, this pursuit of dancing? You know you're doing this for forever and then you're going to film school, like how do you connect the dots there of, like, how did that transition into fight, fighting? And before we recorded this, I told you how my background is kind of like the opposite of yours. Like my family, we all did martial arts growing up. Yeah, so I did martial arts before I started dancing, so that was kind of like my lens, but then you were kind of you dance for forever and then you start getting into fighting. So could you connect the dots with how you made that transition from you know dancing to sure film and then fighting?

John:

so my dancing. I did it for a good 12 years of my life, and then, when I transitioned to martial arts, it was actually very easy. But there is a funny story of why I started fighting After I stopped dancing for a while. After my 12 years of dancing, actually, my knee was not good.

John:

You know, I have dancer knees. I guess you can say and my right knee specifically.

John:

My patella was overstretched right. All the knee drops, all the back flips, whatever right You're saying, that's not good for your body, definitely not yeah, yeah.

John:

So then you go to the not, yeah, yeah, but yet I do it now, yeah, yeah. So I got knee surgery right and then I got addicted to the healing process. So in my recovery which was supposed to be six months, right, I did it in three and I got addicted to healing and I was thought about, I was like I did 12 years of dance. I really like this healing process right now. How far can I push my body? That's when the fighting, the itch for fighting, started. Yeah, which is really weird. Yeah, I was like yeah, you should fight, you shouldn't mess up your body more. I'm like well, I think I saw it as you know, knowing getting to understand your body even more so that's why I started fighting.

John:

So that's my, to connect the dots a little more, as a dancer, learning how to fight was learning a new style. Yeah, that's all it was. So it was a good exploration to find the love for movement again I like that.

J.R.:

I also like how it's a combination of your different. So dancing or fighting is like a different dance style, yeah, but now you have this experience in like production, producing these films and then so now it's like kind of a marriage of those things. So it must have been like a crazy experience that you're in it now and you're like, wow, this is like everything that I enjoy. So it's nice to have that sort of feeling. So then at that point in time, so you know, you transition from dancing to fighting and then you're addicted to the healing process, like you said, seeing how far you can push your body. Were there any like influences that other influences that got you into specifically?

John:

fighting. I mean, I don't know, maybe I can make an assumption. You also like martial arts films, right? Yeah, yeah, so there's that. There's a little guy named jackie chan, who not really well known yeah, yeah, he's kind of a nobody, but jackie chan was a big inspiration, you know, not only for me but for a lot of the stunt community, because he actually created what we call wrecks, our falls. He created a staple for people to learn how to fall.

J.R.:

Oh, I see.

John:

These are the falls, and he created this whole dictionary of it. So everything, all the falls that you see on film, everything is Jackie Chan created, which is really cool, but Jackie Chan was definitely one of them as a kid I was very into power rangers, very into, you know, teenage mutant ninja turtles for film wise three ninjas was a big thing.

John:

Yeah, I mean, there's a bunch of martial arts film that I grew up, especially chinese martial arts that I watched, that I don't even know the names of anymore and they're like on vhs, you know. So a lot of it was inspired, honestly, by my dad, who showed me these films, like these movies, these Chinese movies specifically, and I just fell in love with it.

J.R.:

Yeah, so growing up there was a lot of like influences there, I see, I see, yeah, for me it was a lot of Jackie Chan also, but also a lot of Jet Li films. Jet Li definitely A huge Jet Li films. Jet Li definitely huge Jet Li film. Oh yeah, I always watched. We had a lot of his tapes as well or DVDs and stuff, yeah.

John:

So it was super crazy. If you could name one of Jet Li's films, that off the top of your head, what would it be?

J.R.:

okay. So there's the. He had the Once Upon a Time in China films, but there's also was it Double Dragon or something like that or something else that I used to watch a lot. It might have been like Twin Dragons or Double Dragons. One of those two, I think it's Twin Dragons, twin Dragons Okay, it's one of those. And then and also his American ones like Kiss of the Dragon, and the One, the One, I was going to say the One.

J.R.:

I played all those movies every single, like nonstop. Yeah, the One is crazy, the One's crazy.

John:

yes, also because my sister, my mom, were like huge alia fans I mean myself as well. So it's cool to see him in hollywood films, because we'd watch all of his like chinese films. Yeah, and then seeing him in romeo must die. I think romeo must die was his first american film okay, yeah, yes, jet li, yeah, jelly's a guy.

J.R.:

Yeah, and jackie chen. You know that movie, that where they were both in, that came out like maybe 2010 or something like that.

John:

um, yeah, I know you're you're talking about. You know what I'm talking about, right, where it's like the kid goes into this world, yeah.

J.R.:

And then, of course, jackie Chan's like the drunk guy. Yeah, jet Li is another old sage dude. That was pretty funny. I was like man, my two martial arts heroes are in this movie.

J.R.:

That's the first film they were in together on the topic of stunt work and I know we're going to get into, like, the dangers of action work, but were there any specific opportunities or connections or stories that you can, I guess, walk us through that got you to where you are today? I know a lot of. I can make an assumption. So, like film industry it's you know connections and who you know and who can refer you to these different roles. But when transitioning to okay, I kind of just do this on my own for fun were there any sort of like connections, opportunities that you got to got through someone else that got you more into the industry?

John:

yes, a lot of it has to deal with training. It also depends on where you train.

John:

Obviously, there's a lot of, there's a lot of martial arts studios out there, some specific gyms that are catering to stunt performers would be joining our movement. There's tempest, free running now, and one that I work at which is called swordplay la. There's again. There's many others specifically, but like they're, these are some of the gyms that cater to building stunt performers. Oh, I see so. So training at those locations you meet a lot of performers, from acting to circus, to stunts and to even dancing. So it's like the people you meet and that's kind of what the whole industry is. Whoever you meet, pretty much you become friends and then you train, you train, you train nonstop and you build trust around that with people around you and they're like hey, I like the way you move, I trust you. We fought together before. Can you be in this project? Yeah, that's kind of how it is makes sense.

J.R.:

I imagine that's kind of like people who want to get into being in the dance, like industry, right where it's. They take classes, they meet people, they put out works and then they build these connections and they're like, hey, I have this thing with this artist coming up. Do you want to be in it? Because I've seen what you've done.

John:

That's exactly the same. So it's just like that. Yeah, exactly the same.

J.R.:

Yeah, because I was going to ask. The next question is like for the audience who are listening to this how do I get into that? And maybe what are some pieces of advice or insights that you could pass along, I think if you ever want to get into film fighting learn how to actually fight.

John:

Yeah, because in actual like martial arts, actual martial arts. One thing that I like to refer to because I am also a teacher in film fighting. I teach functional film fighting at Sorbet, la, and then I recommend people to take boxing classes if they want to learn how to kick, take taekwondo classes if they want to learn like more special stuff. Then you know muay thai. Just, I think the more you know, the better of a performer you are and it's like kind of we call it an arsenal.

John:

Right, you have a, you have your arsenal of different skill sets, and the more you know, the more you get hired for pretty much. So for me specifically, I trained in boxing, taekwondo, jinkendo, and I also learned like a bunch of weapon stuff.

J.R.:

So that has gotten me a lot of jobs and as a not only as a stunt performer, just as a regular performer and it's kind of crazy because I would imagine like fighting as like a boxer or like a jujitsu or like with like guns, or you know, is it gunplay, is that? Yeah right, we could call it gunfu gun, yeah, yeah is like it does look like a different style of martial arts, but also, you know, from a dancing context it is kind of like we.

John:

We always, whenever we teach or whenever we like I have choreography. We're just like dancing yeah, you know we're dancing with a partner, you know, so we. One of the styles we also recommend is like doing tango a lot of partner work partner work. You build connection between two people and you learn distancing. You learn how to move with each other. It's exactly how choreography is, so anything that you see on film that's between two fighters or more than one fighter, they're just dancing with each other.

J.R.:

That's all. It is Nice. Is there something about stunt work or performing stunt work that people might not know about? I know that's probably a big, open-ended question, but something like an insight into your world that people might not know.

John:

Yeah, if you watch the film film fall guy, which is a actual stunt film, yeah, oh, with ryan gosling, yeah, yeah, that's that was catered to like stunts performers. One thing that they mentioned that's very, that's very clear is that it all hurts. It all hurts it all hurts, it all hurts, it is we, and that when if hurts, it all hurts, it is real If you watch the film. He does this a lot. He gives a thumbs up.

J.R.:

Oh, right, right, she's hate that thumbs up.

John:

Yeah, I hate that thumbs up, but that's actually what we do. That's 100% what we do, because what people don't know is that when we have a wreck or a fall, that we do. We can't really show pain because in the industry, time is money and we want to keep working. Yeah, you know, if we get hurt, we don't get paid for the next day. We don't get paid for the next day, we have to leave. They replace us right away, which sucks. That's just how the industry is. You know, time is money.

John:

So what we do, we give the thumbs up even if we're in so much pain. Yeah, we try to pull through all the way to the end. There's things called adjustments that we get If they're doing something special that's very dangerous for us and, for example, we get hurt. They give us an adjustment, which is a good amount of money on top of what we usually get, but we always try not to get hurt. That's the main thing. Safety is always number one and we make sure not only we are safe, our actors are safe that we're working with and everyone around us is safe.

J.R.:

That's like the main thing right, makes sense, yeah, but yes, it all hurts, guys. It hurts real, yes, for real. Yeah, were there any favorites or most memorable moments that you've had doing stunt work thus far? That come to mind?

John:

My favorite moment in my career as a stunt performer was actually working on an 88 Rising project with Akina Jing. That was my first time working with 88 Rising, really great crew. I got to work with Andy Cheng. Andy Cheng is one of the choreographies, choreographers and stunt coordinators for shang chi. He and my buddy, joseph lee, were both coordinators and choreographers for shang chi, so the fact that I got to work with them was very cool and it's like I'm working with andy ching right, oh my.

John:

So it was like my little fangirl moment and I think, besides that, the whole crew was really nice. I got to something that people don't know about this music video is that I got to wire rig and help with the pulling, because Akina Jing is on wires and I get to help pull her in the air while she's on the wire harness. So that was my other job as besides being a stunt performer, but on top of that, on the day of set, my buddy joseph because he was the dp, he was the director of photography. He was on camera.

John:

He was like hey, john, can you hop on camera b right now, because I trust you, yeah, because he knows that I shoot as well. Yeah, it's like I was like sure. So he had me hop on camera. And it's funny because on the music and during the music video I was like I know what shots are mine. I'm like, oh, that's my shot yeah, it's really cool.

John:

So that's something that wasn't you know. People won't know which is, but for me it's like a very special moment, like having the director understand my skill sets and trusting me to do something such a, to have such a big responsibility in this music video nice yeah, that's the important of having a wide arsenal and your repertoire to be able to do different positions exactly that's why I was like I recommend people we all do it now like to not only be a performer, but be a filmmaker, so learn about cameras learn about lighting.

John:

Learn about editing, because I think now, in this day and age, like that's what they're looking for. You know, people are looking for people who have a very wide skill set, and that's those are the people that get hired every time.

J.R.:

Makes a lot of sense. One of the other things you mentioned was like how does high impact work, like stunt work, affect our bodies and what is required to either mitigate the damage or what is the recovery, recuperation process like? So any aspect of that you want to touch on yeah.

John:

So before getting to the recovery process, because that's obviously a must, but we have to prepare ourselves so much before we get into a shoot. So if I know I'm going to be taking like 20 falls on in this production, I have to practice those 20 falls at least over 100 times. So that means I go to the gym, I work out, get my body prepared, I make sure it's good enough to perform and then I work on those specific falls where I know I can land it safely, obviously showing very high impact. But being able to do it 20 times, you know, because a lot of times on set you're not going to do one fall once. It's very unlikely when you do it's gold. Yeah, yeah, I'm like I get to do this fall once. Oh, thank God, that means I can save my body for the next one.

John:

Yeah, yeah. So we prepare our bodies beforehand to get into situations like those. If there's ever a moment where, like, something goes wrong and we do hurt ourselves, what we like to do is obviously take a break, you know, from moving for a while, but you know getting massages, you know acupuncture is a thing, cupping is a thing. There's many different recovery things that you can do to heal the body and for us, I like to do it every two weeks, even if I'm not performing Right, because training will always stay high intensity, no matter what, because you never know when you get the job. You know We'd be training five days straight. I get a call or an email hey, can you come in tomorrow? We need you for this doubling gig.

John:

I'm like okay well. I'm ready to go. So that's kind of what we have to be every time.

J.R.:

So just like staying ready, keeping your body ready Absolutely, and then also, like you said, taking care of yourself after that whole process is like a must, because your body is like your vehicle right, like your investment. So I know we probably already touched upon this, but we talked about the dangers of action, work, and I know it's a very risky, high-impact sort of job, but also advice to those who want to get into what you're doing. If you could give your younger self some sort of words of wisdom before you're getting into this field. Are there any?

John:

thoughts on those. One thing I wish that I did back then was stay in martial arts. Obviously, my movement career went to dancing more. But I mean again, I don't regret it, but to do what I do today, I wish I had the skill sets of many different martial arts, starting at a young age. Obviously, as a younger kid your brain kind of absorbs more obviously. So what I would tell my younger self was to stick to martial arts and let your body adapt. Anything that kind of goes your way Makes sense.

J.R.:

Most martial arts is one of those things where it's good for you, it's healthy for you, but also functionally it's good to know martial arts.

John:

Yes, I think it's also good for an's, good for an everyday you know thing. You know it's. It's all about discipline, it's all about, you know, understanding your body. And I think people who, honestly, I think people who do martial arts are scary. Yeah, they're scary people because they're the most calmest in situation and they're, like I said, they're the most dangerous person in the room. You know, it's a, it's funny because, you know, when we were meeting before this, you know, we were grabbing a coffee, right.

J.R.:

I was like sometimes I think to myself, yeah, I can't think I'm the most dangerous person I don't doubt that yeah so it's a funny thought, but it's, you know, it's true yeah, on that note, it's like confidence, right, because I think I told a story before.

J.R.:

But I did martial arts when I was younger like eight, nine, ten and then in high school I kind of got into a fight not really. But then later on I had a dream that I got into a fight and I couldn't defend myself because I was out of practice, I wasn't really training in a style. So the next day I told my mom I was like can you sign me up for something like taekwondo or something? Because I was also learning how to trick, but I also wanted to know how to fight again. And so I did that. And then I think my subconscious was telling me you don't feel confident right now Because if you were in an actual fight you wouldn't feel prepared. And so after relearning martial arts, then I'm like okay, my confidence came back. And now, as someone who knows martial arts, that confidence is something that is really good for you and very valuable to have.

John:

Yeah, confidence is a very big thing that. That comes with the learning of martial arts for sure. It's also gives you the situational awareness of what's happening around you, of course.

J.R.:

Last question on stunt work is have you ever had an issue with a stunt because you felt like it wasn't safe?

John:

100, yeah, all the time that happens with a lot of low budget films just fall off of this. Yeah, yeah, that's how it works, you know that's well for me because I've been in it for a while now. Before, when I was starting my career, I was like I'll just say yes to anything kind of what you have to do to build your portfolio, you know. But now it's like whenever my questions before I get into the actual shoot is like what are we? Doing, doing. What is what you're looking for?

John:

And do we have mats, do we have safety, do we have all these precautions beforehand? And if there's a red flag that goes up, then I'm like, okay, well, we can't do that because that's dangerous. So it's something that you have to clock in before the actual shoot day, because, if, but again, I've been in situations where I've had to say no or I've had to leave set because it was just too dangerous, not only for me but for your actors, right, you know I was like and then a lot of those jobs are again low budget films where the director wants something very ambitious but they don't understand how it works.

John:

So I again, I for me, my job is to explain it to them. This is what you need to do this safely. And if they don't want to pay for it, I'm like, okay, well, you, you could find someone that'll give you free mats. Yeah, free safety. Please find them and tell me about it. I would love that you know. But, yeah, those are very big things that that you need to watch out for you you know when you get into this business. Safety is number one. If you don't feel safe, just say so.

J.R.:

All right, so like maybe a slight pivot, but you mentioned like supporting each other in our communities as one of the things you wanted to talk about, and I know you've worked with so many different people in various fields and, like you train as well, like you train other people, would you want to?

John:

elaborate on this idea of supporting each other in our communities, yeah you know, coming from dance, like what I loved about dance at the time was the love for it, right, the love for dance. And everything was shared equally. I was shared in knowledge of how to become a dance, how to fall in love with dance. I think this goes the same thing with stunts Like how do we love the movement, you know? How do we love to fight? How do we love to do falls? You know, that's kind of a weird saying hey, I love to fall, but honestly I love to fall because I know how you know. I think how we support each other is by sharing that knowledge.

John:

You know knowledge. You know not trying to keep information when we're all trying to do the same thing. You know, I think there's a lot of times where I've seen people kind of gatekeep this whole. You know industry, and it's a very big thing, it's a very it's an issue honestly, and me as a teacher, I want to share knowledge as much as I can because I think your journey is no different than mine.

John:

I think that sure we're. I may be a few years ahead, but I want to get you there too. You know we're all trying to do the same thing, we're all trying to share, we're trying to do art. So I think we need to share the knowledge, anything we need to share the time and opportunities for people to. You know, grow and I think that the main thing. So I think as a community, we should just be able to again share knowledge but have fun doing it. It shouldn't feel like a job. I don't think any job should feel like a job. If we want to grow, then we need to make it fun. We need to make it understandable for people to really just grow with each other so yeah, I love the sentiment like how does that manifest in actuality?

J.R.:

are there any sort of things that people should consider, in whatever field they're in, of giving back or helping share to lift that you know the tide that that lifts all ships, sort of thing like are there some actionable things people can do?

John:

I think one of the main things is just being nice, Be kind guys.

John:

Be, kind, be kind guys. But yeah, I mean, I think what I learned from teaching is that we all learn differently. We all learn at different speeds, we all learn in different creative ways. So if you can understand that we are all different and knowing how to teach people, how to share information in a certain way, then I think that's what helps people grow.

John:

If I were to teach you how to fight, obviously you know how to fight, but if you didn't know how to fight, I would teach you very differently than I would teach someone that doesn't know how to fight. Right, obviously you know how to fight, but if you didn't know how to fight, I would teach you very differently than I would teach you know someone that doesn't know how to fight or move. You know, but there's different speeds at what people, how people learn. But again, I think the main thing is just being kind, you know, not being aggressive in the way you teach or not being like, not getting upset that people learn slower or, you know, don't be in, don't be impatient, you know, yeah, just be patient with everyone and just understand that, hey, like we're all trying to do the same thing again, you were at one point the same as them. You know you weren't at such a good performer until you. Someone taught you know, so they gave you the same thing. So I think we need to continue that, yeah.

J.R.:

I like that. I think one part of it, too, is as you were talking. One thing that came to mind was, if I want to grow as a person and in my artistry, my craft, teaching others is one of the best ways to learn yourself Absolutely, because it solidifies what you know and helps you translate that to someone else, translate that to someone else. But on top of that, if you can teach someone else and they can now grow, you have someone else like a partner who you can learn from, and I have a belief that whatever you put out into the universe comes back to you. So if you're building this community, if you're helping people learn and grow, eventually their growth will come back to you because maybe they'll help you out with something else, and now it is a rising tide that lifts off ships, so it's like you're benefiting yourself from helping other people instead of this sort of gatekeeping mindset of okay, well, I just need to focus on myself.

J.R.:

And I get it in certain industries. It's very cutthroat. It's very like dog-eat-dog, it's a zero sum. But I think people discount the idea of giving back and contributing and how much that has an effect on their longer-term career as a person who people rely on because they're so generous with their knowledge and they're constantly learning, because they're also constantly teaching.

J.R.:

So I totally like that. Are there any? I know we might have talked about this, but are there any habits, mindsets or behaviors that you think are important to cultivating community and are supporting others? Maybe we talked about this already, but specific mindsets or behaviors? Or to cultivating community and are supporting others. Maybe we talked about this already, but specific mindsets or behaviors are I think one one, one habit that's good to have is to be adaptable.

John:

Learn to how, learn how to grow in different areas you know, like, for example, on a film set you know, not everything is going to go planned.

John:

So learning how to be adaptable in any situation will keep the production moving. You know so as a fighter. A lot of the times I mean, okay, let's, let's connect it to a dance scenario. Right, we are performing on stage, I'm on the right wing, you're on the left wing, you're not there. They tell me hey, john, you got to learn the left side. I'm like oh, okay, yeah, that means I have to flip the choreography. But that's the same thing as film and film fighting. Like sometimes, when I'm fighting my partner, who I've been training with constantly for the month straight, right, he's sick for the production. I'm like okay, director comes to me hey, john, you got to learn the other side. Okay, great, I know. Okay, great, I know the other side. Yeah, yeah, I've been doing it, you know, with my partner. So learning how to be adaptable in any situation especially what cameras around you, with lights around you, a bunch of you know production people, right, and then learning how to adapt to that situation is always the key thing, you know.

J.R.:

So a good habit to have is to learn how to be adaptable, also from your example too. Is being prepared and being ready for those opportunities right? Because if you have this arsenal that you've been training and keeping your body in top shape, you're able to be more adaptable than someone who gets caught off guard and it's oh, I didn't prepare for this at all. Yeah, exactly last question on this topic are there any good stories that you would like to share on this topic of building community, or insights that people you feel like take away from it?

John:

I think one insight that I have is to find people who love what they do.

J.R.:

That's the main thing.

John:

Because, like I said before, I teach at Swordplay LA as a functional film fighting teacher, so everything I teach is functional. I can use what I teach in real life. My students can as well. So we just adapt it to more of a film aspect how to fight for film.

John:

But I think, find a community that doesn't prevent you from growing and good people who have the same mindset as you. I think that's the main thing. Yeah, because one thing that I try to enforce when I teach is that A I am no better than you and then, even though I'm the teacher, we are here to do art, we're here to move. Let's create something together, even though you don't know how to fight, but I do, but that's okay. Let's just find a happy medium where we both can perform together. I like that.

J.R.:

All right, you ready for rapid fire? Okay.

John:

I'm ready.

J.R.:

That's the best part, all right. So this is the billboard question. It is, if you could put up a sign for millions of people to see, what would it say?

John:

I could put up a billboard for a million people to see that's a good question.

John:

I would say laugh more. Why is that? I mean, laughing is contagious, right? So I think that just makes people smile. I think we need more. I think we need more smiles in this world. You know there's a lot, there's too much going on. You know there's too much on the road, even every day. You know there's too much traffic, you know. But if I were in traffic and I see a billboard, I just smile more. I'm like that just makes me smile automatically. You know what I mean. I'm like okay, cool. All right, I just need that little thing my billboard.

J.R.:

Nice, yeah, all right, next one, what is?

John:

one of the hardest challenges you faced in your life and what did you learn from it? The hardest challenge I faced in my life was a little I'll go a little more personal on this one, but is you know facing depression on while living in this world of trying to perform. I think that was one of the hardest thing that I'm currently still going through, but I'm getting better at you know, but again we're there's not.

John:

it's not just me, there's many other people that go through this in many different forms, but for me personally, like getting through a day not feeling low, learning how to just have fun and smile more right, learning how to you know, share good energy. No matter what, I think that's what I've been kind of getting over.

J.R.:

So all right. Next one is called self-inflicted wound. Do you have a story about something that's gone wrong in your life? That was your own fault and you have no one else to blame but yourself?

John:

yeah, I think my back when I right after high school again not knowing what I wanted to do in life, I did waste a lot of time in my community college years and not knowing and kind of just being lazy. So that was like my like hiccup in life. Like I just wasted so many years just not knowing where I wanted to go until I found, like what was in front. Like I just wasted so many years just not knowing where I wanted to go until I found, like what was in front of me, which was my love for film, my love for dance, love for moving in general and art, you know.

John:

So I was like why didn't I go to film school earlier? Yeah why? Why was that? Why was I so late? And I feel as a performer, even for fighting as well, I feel like I was a really late bloomer because I only started when I was 27 years old, 26. So that's like pretty late in the game already. So I wish I started earlier. Even if I was a kid, I would start right away, but right after college would have been nice. That kind of is okay.

J.R.:

Maybe there's a different answer, Maybe it's the same, but if you could redo one thing, what would you do differently?

John:

If I could redo one thing, I would probably stay in dance Stay in dance.

J.R.:

Yeah, stay in dance, but still do what you do now. Yeah. Okay.

John:

I think there is a good balance for both. I do have friends who are still in the dance community, who are also in stunts. Oh, okay.

John:

Yeah, one of which is so funny, but I did again. I have many other friends who are dancers. They have a career in dance also. They have a career in stunts, which is really nice. So I wish I I stuck to dance more or continued it back then and but still fell in love with stunts and fighting at the same time, because I think, I mean, I again, I just love movement, so it's, I would love to do it all yeah.

J.R.:

Do you feel like there's a future where you would get back into dance in some capacity?

John:

I think so yeah, yeah, I think so if I had the time. So it's like a it's like a time thing. It is a time thing. Yeah, I think my life right now is very jam-packed, which is a good problem to have. But yeah, I do, I again, I wish I had more time to do more yeah, ambitious guys like yourself always want to do more so I respect that yeah, if you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?

J.R.:

any age, any time period, don't be lazy.

John:

I was so lazy as a kid I mean again that's. I think well, besides being lazy, try harder. Yeah, there's a lot of moments in my life where I was like I just didn't try too hard. Yeah, that kind of stopped me from doing more. I guess you can say so, if I specifically in high school, if I tried harder in high school, I think I would have done more, so question on that topic though.

J.R.:

So I can relate to people who, like, maybe are lazy because they don't have maybe the self-awareness or they don't know what they want to do. So it's hard to be motivated if, okay, I really don't have maybe the self-awareness or they don't know what they want to do, so it's hard to be motivated if, okay, I really don't know who I am or what I want to do. Was it that sort of place where it's like you kind of just didn't really know yet and that's why you're lazy, or did you have an idea that was like gnawing at you, but you just chose laziness?

John:

I think I just didn't know what I want to do. That was a big thing for me. Again, I was dancing throughout my whole high school career and like I, that's kind of what I wanted. That's all I did, you know, was dance. That's all I focused on because I know I was good at it. I think every but looking back now, like looking at what we learned in high school, like from history, math, you know english, whatever I was like that stuff was really easy you know now that I look back at it yeah, I mean it's all in the textbooks yeah well, not textbooks.

John:

Now they're on freaking laptops yeah right, but back then we had books. Okay, we had books, we, it was all there. You know now to think about it, all the answers were there but I was like I just didn't have interested interest in learning it it's like I just didn't want to do it. So I wish I was like just do it. You try harder to just do it, Get it out of the way so you can move on to the next thing. Move on to the next thing Makes sense.

J.R.:

In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or habit has improved your life?

John:

I think my biggest thing that has improved is my patience. It's the biggest thing. Yeah, at first, in my early career of filmmaking, I was very impatient and the fact that I was looking for jobs non-stop. I would say yes to everything and then I didn't know how to say no. Good and bad thing, you know. Because obviously as an early excuse me obviously as an early performer, you want to say yes to build your reel to build your portfolio.

John:

But now I've learned the patience and saying no, and learning the patience of understanding what's good for me in a job and what's not good for me, you know. So there's been many times where I've recently I've had to say no, which is okay. I think that's another skill set, like just saying no. You know, a lot of times for us as a artist, we want to keep going, want to keep going and say yes.

J.R.:

A lot of things that kind of kind of weird you know, but it's okay to say no yeah, that discernment and that judgment is invaluable. Right, just keep you on track or what you want to do. Yeah, who would you call successful and how do you define success?

John:

Let me think about that question it could be anyone.

J.R.:

People you know people you don't know people you look up to celebrities, not celebrities dead alive, whatever Successful huh?

John:

Can I change that question a little bit? I think success there's's. No, I don't think anyone is really successful. You know, I think, as an artist, like we're all we're looking for success, but there's no end to it how do you define success then?

J.R.:

that no one is. What is the definition of success?

John:

I think for me, success is to continuously grow, gotcha, and to continuously grow and to want to grow and to share that with people who want to grow. I think for me, that's success. To continue the next generation to do what you've been doing, because I've had to teach kids who want to learn exactly what we do yeah, I mean, I can do it, you can too. I think that's success. To continue what the, to continue what the art is and what makes people happy and enjoyable, to keep joy and happiness to to flow continuously, you know that's successful.

J.R.:

I don't think there's a point where, oh, now I'm successful so it's a process, not necessarily a destination yeah, it's a process, for sure so then at that case, either everyone's successful or no one's successful okay, I vibe with that, by the way, I agree, I think it's a process, because I think for me, I don't think I've hit my success yet.

John:

I see myself in that growing stage. You know, even you know, at our age we're like not even in our primes yet. You know, as in in film, a lot of people that get hired look older, right, they're the ones that get hired constantly. You know, um, for me, I, you know, I have asian genes, so I look very young, nice, yeah, exactly. And then if I shade my face, I look even younger, which is great. So I could play younger, which is nice. And uh, people want the greediness of that kind of old age a little bit. So you kind of have to grow a little more. So I think once I hit like my 40s or 45s, I'm like, okay, yeah, let's hire him. He looks older now, yeah, you know so, but I'm glad to have the skill sets I have now so when I hit 45, I'm like, oh yeah, he's ready go.

J.R.:

If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you be doing now?

John:

Ooh, if I knew I couldn't fail, what would I be doing? Win the lottery, I don't know. Buy lottery tickets. If I knew I couldn't fail, I'd probably I mean, I'd love to start my own business, you know. In that sense, this is kind of random.

J.R.:

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, but I want to start stickers like random stickers, like troll stickers troll stickers.

John:

Yeah, like a sticker shop, like an etsy shop or what do you mean? Yeah, kind of like an etsy shop, but like to create my own stickers. I've been having every time I'm on set I'm like thinking about like things that we say yeah, which is really funny, and like just how to make those stickers. You know, okay, for example, everyday life, right like you you're walking, like what's something that we do every day. That's like funny. You know, like I missed the last step and screamed. You know, like when you miss that last step, you go like that well, it's like random stuff, like that. You know, I don't know like troll stickers that's kind of what?

J.R.:

oh I see, I see. Yeah, troll stickers oh I see, I see.

John:

Yeah, troll stickers If I could. I mean, I think, starting any business really, yeah, I would love to start a business.

J.R.:

What do you like about the idea of starting a business, just creating something Kind of like you are a creator, my own thing, okay makes sense, and I've always dreamed of having my own shop.

John:

Yeah, I think my end goal for my whole career is to have a warehouse, empty warehouse, and for people to, for companies, production companies to be able to rent it out for a good year. All I gotta pay for is rent and gas and water, electricity. Right then they pay. What? A thousand dollars for a day you? Know, stuff like that to build sets for a year. I was like it. That's a lot of money.

John:

But a creative space for people to grow. Again, another thing about growing, right, but having a creative space for people to make their work and their art and to just use it to give back to the community, kind of sense. Yeah, business, I'd love to start a business.

J.R.:

I like that what is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you've ever made, either in time, money, energy or anything else?

John:

I think the best investment, I think the best investments that I've given, is to myself, giving myself the opportunity to train constantly and to understand what my body needs. Yeah, I think self-care is the most important thing for anybody. I think that's what we all need to do. More of is self-care. I think we all kind of get lost in the sauce. I guess you can say when we get lost in work, we get lost in our jobs, we get lost in our jobs, we get lost in life, we get lost in, sometimes, family. But we forget that we need to care for ourselves and I think for me that I've given myself a lot of opportunities lately to really just care for myself, understand what I need specifically second to last one what is a favorite recent purchase that you've made within the 50 to 100 range?

J.R.:

could be more, could be less, but favorite recent okay so I recently moved into my own apartment.

John:

Yeah, and it's been a slow process to build and living out of boxes for a while, but I recently got my own computer desk that's movable oh nice on wheels. So it's, I think for me that's like my workspace. You know, it's like my own table I can do my work on, I can build stuff on as a kid, because growing up I was very into legos, I was very into like building in general you know building gundams, whatever right.

John:

So it was like I built I didn't. Well, I technically built my table and now I can build stuff on the table ah yeah, you build a thing, you can build stuff yeah, exactly so it's like my own, like little workspace, which is really nice. It's nice to call that in mind. But also I bought my's like my own, like little workspace, which is really nice. It's nice to call that mine. But also I bought my. I got my own apartment.

J.R.:

That's like another thing. Yeah, that's like the thing. The table in the apartment In the apartment.

John:

Yeah, exactly. So that would be like my fun adult purchase. It wasn't in the $50 or a hundred range. I wish it was. Oh yeah, really expensive.

J.R.:

Well, department, that's the department. What about the table was?

John:

actually 60 bucks. Oh, that's great yeah yeah, not bad good good, all right.

J.R.:

Last question favorite books, movies, videos, articles or media in general that you recommend or share the most I would say my favorite movie would be a silent film the kid okay by charlie chaplin.

John:

I think that I always go back to that movie because one there's no talking, all of it is straight acting. There's great stunt work in it because it's Charlie Chaplin and it's all real. No CGI Again, there is little camera tricks here and there, but again he is doing everything, which is amazing, but he's storytelling in a way that you have to just watch and understand what they're doing and it's hard to do that because there's no words.

John:

Yeah, you know again. But we understand that as dancers, right, I think as dancers, we're great storytellers. Right, we have to storytell what the music is through our bodies, you know people can hear it, but when they see it, they see the words on our bodies. It's like a whole nother thing, you know. So my favorite movie of all time is the kid. But I try each other nice I like it cool all right.

J.R.:

Well, that is it for rapid fire questions. We made it to the end. It was a lot of fun, all right. So wrapping it up, gratitude shout out to my mom, so I learned it from. So what is john? What is something you're grateful for? One or multiple things?

John:

I am grateful for my friends who I've been training with recently. They're the reason why I do a lot of what I do now. They keep me going, they keep me sane, and also a shout out to the students that have been coming to my class. You guys are like the reasons why I keep going. Nice. Also a shout out to the students that have been coming to my class.

J.R.:

You guys are like the reasons why I keep going. Nice, I like it All right. Last thing is do you have any final, last ask from the audience or final takeaways that you would like them to have from this conversation?

John:

Yeah, I think the main thing I want to say is that if we can just smile more, you know, share what you know, share what everyone should know. You know when it comes to not only like for me specifically fighting, but like share just good knowledge with people, and I think that goes a long way. Nice, I love it a lot.

J.R.:

All right. Well, john, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. I learned a lot from our conversation. I hope. Hopefully, the audience will have gotten some insights from it too. I think they can. You know, really like what you're doing. Oh yeah, where can people find you?

John:

sorry last thing yeah, I mean people can find me on my instagram. Handle john Tieng first and last name easy and also my website, Tieng. There you go.

J.R.:

Yeah, and we'll link to it in the description show notes. All right, so my final sign off. Thank you guys for tuning in and listening. Hope you guys really enjoyed this episode. Just a reminder to always be kind to other people, especially yourself, and you can always learn something from someone if you just take the time to listen. So thank you guys for being here.

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J.R. Yonocruz

Host
Contributor

John Tieng

Guest